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The Foundation trilogy is a fantastic example of "God works in mysterious ways" being completely fallible. The Foundation nearly falls because it gets so stuck on "Sheldon's Plan" ("God's Plan" ) that supposedly accounts for almost everything except free will that when an unknown variable pops in, a mutant able to bend free will (Satan), causes the Second Foundation (Jesus) to act early making everything need recalculated. The First Foundation trudges on in this 1,000 year plan feeling even stronger even though they have been shown to be fallible to the whole Galaxy now, and that their plan may not work (I will return soon). I could be projecting though, but it is great seeing Asimov show how stupid it is to rely on a plan for 1,000 years and expect everything to be hunky dory

cweigle 5 July 11
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I disagree that the Second Foundation is analogous to Jesus. Because, if Jesus existed (which he didn't) then that which you criticised as being silly, is exactly what he did - God made a cameo appearance on Earth, left behind a few anecdotal instructions and expected the whole world to follow those instructions exactly, until the end of the world.
Hari Seldon's genius wasn't the creation of the Foundation, it was his foresight into knowing that the Galaxy would need a living, consistent, malleable and responsive guiding hand in order to bring humanity back into cohesivity within a reasonable timeframe.

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I don’t like to look for these analogies, I generally hold that great fiction should be enjoyable as exactly that, great fiction. If you can find obvious analogies then they haven’t been hidden well enough by the author, because it functions as a distraction.

But I think these parallels are a bit of a stretch 🙂

Denker Level 7 July 12, 2018
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Not the biggest scifi fan, but it was Sirens of Titans that started to drive my Catholic upbringing out of my head. Less an epiphany than a gradual erosion, one that eventually became a landslide though...

"A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved."- Kurt Vonnegut

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Are we surprised that the religious have explanations that cover every base? They go on faith alone and whatever flexible open ended explanation they come up with will never be wrong.

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I am A-theist and I give no credibility what-so-ever, in any way shape form or fashion, to ANYTHING having to do with god(s). I do not waste my time on fantasy and fairytales when it pertains to reality.

I was saying that if I'm not just projecting, Asimov brilliantly calls out the fallacy of "God has a plan"

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